Changing Landscape Of Education Research Articles

Eight Dimensions of Basic Employability Skills: A Survey on the Academics’ Level of Awareness

This article was written based on a part of a bigger research project on developing a Graduate Employability (GE) Teaching Model which received university funding. Industry Revolution 4.0 has emphasised on the importance of the 21st century soft skills among fresh graduates in securing employment. A growing literature of GE also suggests that graduates need to be prepared with sufficient soft skills in enhancing their employability skills. However, along with the demand of the IR4.0 industry, came a new challenge in training the university students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to COVID-19 pandemic, higher education institutions now operate in a new norm that is unprecedented. This raises several concerns on how GE is now being addressed, given the changing industry and education landscape. Much yet need to be learned from the academics about their awareness of the GE skills and how those skills are trained during the pandemic. Hence, the study aims to investigate academics’ level of awareness of the basic employability skills required of the graduates and the important factors to be considered in developing a GE teaching model. A quantitative research design was employed resulting in the administration of an pnline survey. As part of a bigger data collection procedure, the survey was completed by 39 academics from various social science faculties in one of the public universities. The investigation focused on eight key dimensions of basic employability skills: basic literacy and numeracy skills, critical thinking skills management skills, leadership skills, interpersonal skills, information technology skills, systems thinking skills and work ethic disposition. Using SPSS, data was analysed using descriptive statistics. The academics’ levels of awareness were identified by each dimension and the findings help the study to identify areas for further training needed by the academics. Some of the salient findings suggest academics need further traning on the digital and technology related skills such as systems thinking and information technology skills and that the GE teaching model could encapsulate the need for professional development in the technological domain besides the pedagogy and content domains. Further research on areas such as academics’ professional development and revised or futuristic curriculum could be considered.

Retrospective: A tribute to the past editors from the current editorial team


 
 
 This retrospective, as the first piece in the new online version of Kairaranga, looks back over two decades of the print version of this journal. The current editorial team pays tribute to the original editors and acknowledges their vision and achievements. Locating the journal within the changing educational landscape over the past twenty years, this piece provides a meta-analysis and reflection of the articles published from 2004 to 2021. It explores the key themes that emerged as threads across 24 Kairaranga issues published between these years.
 Looking forward to Kairaranga’s future, there is a commitment to honouring the past. The original vision and focus of Kairaranga will remain: to foreground evidence-based practices that put learners at the centre. Opportunities to weave new Kairaranga threads will be explored, including expanding the voices and perspectives of contributors, widening the journal focus to equity issues across learning support and enabling online and multi-media submissions in both English and te reo Māori.
 Looking back to look forward, the core kaupapa of this interprofessional journal stays constant, so that Kairaranga can continue to promote educational equity across Aotearoa.
 
 

Learning styles and Technology Livelihood Education (TLE) Competency Assessment of Junior High School Students: Input for a Competency-Based Program

The changing educational landscape and the vision of Education 4.0 have pushed curricular reforms in the Philippines. The K—12 Program was implemented to enhance the quality of education to uplift the Filipino learners' full potential, promoting equitable, culturally based skills and competency-based learning. With the recent educational developments, various modalities are essential to acquire the necessary competencies among learners. Specifically, the Technology Livelihood Education (TLE) under TechVoc is critical as it provides skilled courses to students in grades 7 to 12. Its ultimate goal is to train young individuals and help them gain the competencies and employability skills they need to qualify them to apply and work in local industries and other countries. Therefore, the researcher employed a descriptive correlational design to assess the competency of 50 Junior High School Students in Eulogio Rodriguez Vocational High School (ERVHS) with their learning styles. Results revealed that all of the respondents were competent and that no significant relationship exists between the respondents learning style and TLE competency. The post-structuralism theory implies that several factors must be considered, particularly students as learning agents. Moreover, the findings also critiqued the VARK model as an opportunity for future discourses on learning styles. Results geared at enhancing the least acquired competencies of students and input to the TLE intervention program.

Preoperative Planning for Your Career

Surgical residents face significant demands to obtain the requisite skills and knowledge for their specialty by the time they graduate. Structured, guided, deliberate learning in a manner that is reproducible is crucial for surgical resident success and for ensuring residents will be able to meet the increasing demands of clinical practice. Use of an organized surgical planning tool, such as the PERFECT (Position, Exposure, Reduction, Fixation, Evaluation, Closure, and Therapy) model described in this article, is fundamental and indispensable to not only resident education, but to ones’ future career and to orthopaedic practice more broadly. This tool helps to emphasize important elements of a case, allows for mental rehearsal, serves as a custom educational resource for the resident, provides a framework for focused and intentional communication between the resident and attending surgeon, helps to encourage a critical appraisal of a procedure by all participants, and provides the resident guidance for future practice. Broadly instituting teaching frameworks such as the PERFECT model has demonstrated the potential to improve the standardization and overall learning experience for orthopaedic surgical residents, who continue to be tasked with learning more efficiently in a changing healthcare and education landscape.

Teaching songs from diverse cultures to pre-service teachers using a “Four Step Flipped” method

As music educators around the globe continue to work in blended environments, it is important to explore how pedagogical approaches can be adapted and reimagined in ways that enhance teaching and learning in this changing educational landscape. In this study, the authors drew on elements of Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) to teach three culturally diverse songs to pre-service teachers at a Spanish university. Acting as culture bearers and tertiary music educators, they selected and taught songs from three different geographic locations (South Africa, Sri Lanka, and the United States). Utilizing a descriptive case study design, the authors discuss their pedagogical approach and argue a Four Step Flip method (Asynchronous, Synchronous, Face-to-Face, and Hybrid Feedback) can be effectively applied and adopted in online music teaching and learning settings. This model prioritizes the culture bearers’ involvement in the learning process from start to finish while allowing students ample space to merge unfamiliar cultural perspectives with their own. The authors also contend building collaborative networks that extend beyond national borders can enhance understanding and appreciation of different genres, cultures, and languages in music classrooms.

Trends in K-12 Teacher Agency Research: A Review of Science Education Research

ABSTRACT In-service teachers of science work with unique content and pedagogical experiences within a changing educational landscape. Understanding teacher agency in these circumstances will help researchers understand the actions that these teachers take. The purpose of this meta-analysis was to review how the agency of K-12 in-service teachers of science has been examined empirically in the science education research literature during the period of 2007–2020. Informed by grounded theory, we qualitatively analyzed 48 peer-reviewed articles, which we located using specific search criteria. We identified that science teacher agency is currently conceptualized largely paper-to-paper and without fully attending to the professional and lived experiences, and thus humanity, of science teachers; thereby, creating exciting opportunities for science education researchers to expand on both the breadth and depth around the theorization and operationalization of in-service science teacher agency. Recommendations are addressed.

Hybrid pedagogy and learning design influences in a higher education context

After pivoting to a completely new mode of teaching and learning for much of the higher education sector, a focus on the learning design influences and networked communities sought to address a gap in current literature. The research attempted to delve into the scope of hybrid learning design in response to the changing educational landscape, forced by the Covid-19 pandemic. Thirty-eight participants from across the higher education sector participated in a qualitative survey and institutional context was derived from internal system analytics and engagement data to inform usage of specific systems and tools. Overall, hybrid learning design was limited in its prevalence across the participants learning design, with online and blended playing a key role. Furthermore, the research focuses on identification of key factors influencing learning design and possibly the neglect of a hybrid model required to meet the expectations and needs of the current scenario higher education finds itself. Possible limitations of this research and future associated research are addressed in relation to the results and analysis, with recommendations of how to improve.Keywords: hybrid learning; learning design; community of practice; digital capabilities; online pivot; online learningPart of the Special Issue Technology and educational ‘pivoting’ in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic <https://doi.org/10.21428/8c225f6e.0a9292af>

Role of the Learning Management System in Resilience during the COVID-19 Pandemic

This study offers an analytical portrayal of the resilience that learning management systems (LMSs) provide to higher education institutions. It analyzes the previous literature on various educational settings during the COVID-19 pandemic to identify the LMS adoption process, followed by a focus on Qatar University’s adoption of Blackboard and how this offered a smooth transition to online and blended learning during the pandemic. The main purpose of this research is to provide an overview of how the effective adoption of a LMS by higher education institutions can enhance the resilience of the teaching-learning process in a changing educational landscape. A qualitative case study is conducted to present the process Qatar University went through to adopt Blackboard in its educational system, followed by an examination of the impact of this adoption on resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic. This case study is conducted through a qualitative content analysis of the resources available on the official Qatar University website, including information from the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) and Student Learning Support Center (SLSC), other sources on the website such as newsletters and announcements, and datasets provided by CETL. The research employs the theory of diffusion of innovation to evaluate the effectiveness of the adoption of Blackboard. The value of this paper lies in establishing a link between the LMS adoption process and its role in overcoming academic disturbances. The limitations and recommendations are considered.

A Pilot Study of Brand Loyalty in Generation Y of Technical and Vocational Education Training Colleges

Objective - In an increasingly changing and dynamic South African higher education landscape, institutions must communicate their brand to stakeholders to perceive the institution as offering quality services,to have a loyal stakeholder. However, thereseemsto be little attention devoted to the influence of brand communication, brand satisfaction and service quality on brand loyalty in higher education, particularly in the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) sector. Considering this view, and noting that prior research on brand loyalty in the service sector has shown a connection between brand communication, service quality, brand satisfaction and brand loyalty, it is unknown if a similar correlation is found in the South African TVET sector. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate Generation Y students' views of brand communication, brand satisfaction and service quality in the TVET sector throughout the Gauteng Province of South Africa.As a result, this paper summarises the findings of a pilot study to establish the validity and reliability of a questionnaire used to examine Generation Y students' perceptions of brand communication, brand satisfaction and service quality related to brand loyalty in Gauteng TVET colleges. Methodology/Technique - The variables for the paper were derived from previously established questionnaires. A section of the questionnaire asked students about their views of a TVET's brand communication. Additionally, there were questions concerning the quality of service, brand selection and brand loyalty. Finally, all scale items were modified to be more contextually relevant.The questionnaire used a six-point Likert scale, with 1 indicating strong disagreement and 6 indicating strong agreement. The questionnaire was piloted with a convenience sample of 50 students not included in the primary study's sampling frame. Finding - The overall number of respondents (46) was insufficient to undertake extensive statistical testing. As a result, only frequency and correlation coefficients were computed. Correlation analysis revealed a substantial association between brand loyalty and the variables that influence it. All had a strong association between brand loyalty and brand communication, service quality and brand loyalty and satisfaction. Additionally, there were substantial correlationsbetween service quality and brand satisfaction and between service quality and brand communication. Correlation coefficients between constructs ranged from 0.294 to 0.781. This demonstrates that these constructs do not correspond to the same concept. As a result, all construct items were kept for use in the main study. Novelty - The results from the pilot study provides preliminary support for the hypothesised relationship between brand loyalty and its predictors. Marketers and service organisations need to recognise that the future patronage of a service organisation depends on loyalty. Type of Paper - Empirical Keywords: Brand Communication; Service Quality; Brand Satisfaction; Brand Loyalty; Technical and Vocational Training JEL Classification: M31, I23, I29

Predictors Of Brand Loyalty With Technical And Vocational Education Training Colleges İn Gauteng: Results Of A Pilot Study

According to Akoojee and McGrath (2008:132), TVET colleges are required to build institutions that are attuned better to satisfy the needs of the stakeholders through their brand. Very few TVET colleges have attracted stakeholders without proper brand communication and service quality (Beneke &amp; Human 2010: 437). In most TVET colleges, very little is done to communicate the brand to stakeholders, which may be a direct result of the lack of proper brand communication and service quality (Azoury, Daou &amp; El Khoury 2013:5). In an increasingly changing and dynamic South African higher education landscape, it is imperative for institutions to communicate their brands to stakeholders in such a way that these stakeholders perceive the institution as offering quality service in order to have a satisfied stakeholder who is loyal to the institution. However, there appears to be little attention paid to effects of brand communication, service quality and brand satisfaction on brand loyalty in the tertiary education sector, especially in the Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) sector. This study was conducted in Nigeria. In light of this view, and given previous research on brand loyalty in service industries identifying a relationship between brand communication, service quality, brand satisfaction and brand loyalty, it is unclear whether such relationships exist in the South African TVET sector. Therefore, there is a need to examine Generation Y students' perceptions of brand communication, service quality and brand satisfaction on brand loyalty in TVET colleges in Gauteng. Consequently, this research study reports on the findings from a pilot study conducted to determine the legitimacy and reliability of the measuring instrument being employed to examine Generation Y students' perceptions of brand communication, service quality and brand satisfaction on brand loyalty in TVET colleges in Gauteng. Keywords: Brand Loyalty, Brand Communication, Service Quality, Brand Satisfaction

The applicability of the learned occupation in the changing educational and labour landscapes of the 1970s to 2000s

The applicability of the learned occupation in the changing educational and labour landscapes of the 1970s to 2000s

New Understanding of the Barriers to Foreign Students Adaptation in the Changing Educational Landscape: The Case of Psycholinguistic Narrative Analysis

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed nowadays life in every aspect so irreversibly that there is no doubt that the educational landscape must be continuously re-evaluated and revised. In this regard, particular emphasis is given to the issues of academic mobility and adaptation of foreign students. The aim of the study is to clarify a new understanding of the issues traditionally faced by foreign students in universities in the host country and to analyze new barriers that have arisen as a result of the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper reports on a narrative research study exploring the experiences and perceptions of 42 first-year bachelor and master foreign students having come to Russia for the first time. Taking into account that human behaiviour can be predicted through language patterns, we analysed language features to compare the participants’ rational and emotional perception of the barriers to adaptation highlighted from their narratives. The findings suggest that almost all issues traditionally faced by foreign students have received a new understanding or have changed their hierarchy in their perception. Contemporary challenges have also created new barriers to adaptation. Temporalities and restrictions in physical movement received special emphasis as an obstacle to adaptation of foreign students. In the context of the total transformation that awaits higher education after the end of the pandemic and its transition to a hybrid format, the results of this study can be used by academic developers to establish a system of foreign students’ psychological adaptation.

Teachers’ Critical Reflections on the New Normal Philippine Education Issues: Inputs on Curriculum and Instruction Development

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Philippine educational landscape is greatly affected. This education issue concerns the country's curriculum and instruction (CIN), covering students' learning, delivery modalities, competencies, teachers' characteristics, and community involvement. Nonetheless, the CIN must be developed, considering the students, teachers, community, and the pressing challenges in the teaching-learning process, promoting quality education while considering the pandemic, by looking into teachers' perspectives. This qualitative research used content analysis to derive insights from the critical reflections of sixteen (16) teacher participants. It aims to present the participants' reflections on the New Normal education issues, leading to curriculum and instruction development inputs. Furthermore, the emerging themes are (a) essentiality and feasibility in choosing learning competencies; (b) good quality, flexibility, sustainability, and safety in choosing learning modalities; (c) learning materials' alignment, sufficiency, and proper distribution; (d) devotion, adaptability, and helpfulness of teachers; (e) reaching out students and task individualization; and (f) leadership and involvement needed to achieve success in education. Moreover, the findings suggest that the New Normal classroom requires a curriculum and instruction, teacher, leadership, and involvement adaptive and flexible of the changing and multifaceted educational landscape brought by the persisting disease.

Covid-19 as a catalyst for sustainable change: the rise of democratic pedagogical partnership in initial teacher education in Ireland

While challenges faced by school leaders during the COVID-19 pandemic have been extensively discussed, this article explores ways in which student teachers have demonstrated ‘adaptive expertise’ in response to a changing educational landscape that have enabled them to support schools during this public health emergency. Discerning school leaders have over the past twelve months looked to student teachers on school placement to demonstrate teacher leadership in supporting schools during the COVID-19 education crisis. This qualitative research draws on in-depth interviews with school leaders [10], co-operating teachers [10] and student teachers [10] across ten case study schools on a teacher education programme in Ireland. It highlights the way in which the COVID-19 pandemic has provided an impetus for the development of democratic pedagogical partnerships in ITE triggered by a need for collaborative engagement underpinned by responsive pedagogy and digital enhanced learning. The data also supports the view that the expertise that student teachers can offer schools in relation to their digital competence can significantly assist in fostering collaborative and reflective practice and bridge the perennial theory/practice divide.

THE TPACK CONFIDENCE OF PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS IN SELECTED PHILIPPINE TEACHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS

The changing educational landscape of Philippine education in the past decade poses challenges to the implementers of the curriculum innovations – the teachers. Consequently, this has put more pressure on the teacher education institutions (TEIs) to produce a quantity of quality teachers. From this context, this paper examines the technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge (TPACK) confidence level of pre-service teachers in selected Philippine teacher education institutions. The TPACK Model has been a very useful framework for academic stakeholders to understand and measure the level of technology integration in teaching and learning. Using a 64-item self-diagnostic questionnaire designed to measure the dimensions of TPACK in terms of learning experience and practice, and assessing the responses of 187 graduating pre-service teachers from selected Philippine TEIs, the data suggest that the pre-service teachers are fairly confident with the learning experience they get from the TEIs and that by using these experiences they frequently demonstrate the acceptable teacher competency and standards. Furthermore, the levels of TPACK confidence of the secondary and elementary pre-service teachers significantly differ from each other such that the former are more confident with their learning experience and practice. Data also show that there is a significant relationship between the quality of learning experience and the ability of the pre-service teachers to demonstrate the core competencies of TPACK. Hence, teacher education institutions must consider innovating their curriculum through training, subject-focused pedagogical modeling, and subject-specific technologies.

Editorial: Technology-mediated learning in VET - Perspectives on changing educational landscapes in the 21st century

No abstract available.

Identifying Levers Related to Student Performance on High-Stakes Science Exams: Examining School, Teaching, Teacher, and Professional Development Characteristics

BackgroundMany students enter into postsecondary education without the preparation to face the demands of postsecondary coursework in science. Increasingly, policymakers and educational researchers are responding to calls for reforming secondary education to provide more opportunity for all students to receive high-quality education and to become career and college ready.PurposeThis study attempts to identify levers to increase student learning in secondary education. In particular, it examines relationships between school, teaching, teacher, and teacher professional development characteristics and student scores on high-stakes Advanced Placement (AP) examinations in the sciences.SettingThis study is situated in the context of the large-scale, top-down, nationwide AP curriculum and examination reform in the sciences (biology, chemistry, physics) in the United States. This is an unprecedented opportunity to analyze changing educational landscapes in the United States with large-scale national student-, teacher-, school-, and district-level datasets across multiple science disciplines and different stages of the curriculum reform implementation connected to a standardized and high-stakes student outcome measure.PopulationThis study analyzes nationwide data samples of the AP Biology, AP Chemistry, and AP Physics population during the first, second, and third year of the curriculum reform implementation. Across disciplines and years, the analytical samples include a total of 113,603 students and 6,046 teachers.Research DesignThis empirical quantitative study uses data from web-based surveys sent to all AP science teachers. Additionally, the College Board provided student- and school-level data for all students taking AP examinations. Data preparation methods included exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Associations with student achievement were analyzed through a multilevel ordered logistic regression analysis, separately by science discipline and year of the curriculum reform implementation. Afterwards, results were aggregated through a meta-analysis.FindingsEven after controlling for student background variables, roughly 60% of the AP score variance could be explained at the teacher and school levels. In particular, teachers’ perceived administrative support, self-efficacy, teaching experience, and elements of classroom instruction were related to student performance. Notably, teachers’ professional development participation—which has been a major focus of interventions—has a small, mixed impact on student achievement.ConclusionThe identified levers for improving student achievement provide a strong rationale for the continued efforts of policymakers to improve school environments and to support science teachers, with the ultimate goal of improving student learning to help all students to be prepared for college and ready for their future careers.

IMPLEMENTATION STATUS OF K12 SOCIAL STUDIES PROGRAM IN PHILIPPINE PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Curriculum implementation needs to be gauged regularly to ensure its effectiveness, efficiency and its relevance to the needs of the students and of the industry. This descriptive-survey research gauged the status of the Social Studies program under the K12 Curriculum for its first four years of implementation. A total of 30 Social Studies teachers and 5 school administrators from three national secondary schools in one division in Central Luzon, Philippines served as respondents of the study. Results revealed that a typical teacher is a female, 37.33 years old, teaching profession for 3.07 years, and a college graduate while a typical administrator is a female, 32.20 years old, serving for about 21.60 years, and a college graduate with MA units. The secondary teachers and school administrators assessed the status of implementation of the curriculum in selected public secondary schools as “moderately observed” in terms of resource variables (M=3.63), process variables (M=3.84) and contextual variables (3.93). Moreover, there is no significant difference between the assessment of the teachers and administrators on the status of the implementation of Social Studies program with regard to the three components. Further, there is no significant difference in the assessment of the teachers and administrators when respondents are grouped according to profile variables. A well-monitored implementation of the K12 Curriculum, specifically the Social Studies program, by stakeholders is recommended. Periodic assessment of the curriculum may also be done to ensure its alignment to the changing educational landscapes and to cope with the challenges of Education 4.0.

Academic Integrity in the Online Classroom

As distance education grows, so does the need to ensure student identity and academic integrity. The academic integrity landscape continues to evolve, and universities have deployed a variety of methods to ensure integrity. The Ohio State University used a dual approach to ensure academic integrity across its distance education offerings employing a virtual proctoring solution and faculty education on authentic assessments. A solid foundation was set with this initiative; however, development will continue in order to meet the needs of a changing educational landscape.

The K-12 Transition in Mindanao: The Case of Iligan Institute of Technology of the Mindanao State University

The history, development, and mandate of the Iligan Instiutute of Technology (IIT) gave it a special role in the struggle to realize the promise of a prosperous, progressive, and peaceful Mindanao. In the early 70s, the World Bank’s Education Development Implementing Task Force (EDPITAF) chose IIT as the Mindanao institution that it would assist with financial and technical support to deliver the Engineering Technology Program (ETP). The K-12 reform launched in 2016, which made the two-year Senior High School (SHS) cycle possible, gave IIT another opportunity to help address the need for skilled workers by offering a Technical-Vocational-Livehlihood (TVL) track for students more concerned about employment than higher education. After one year, however, IIT decided to discontinue the TVL track. Moreover, it also decided to drop the three-year ETP program and to offer in its place a four-year ETP degree course. These decisions came as a surprise to many observers. The IIT Case seeks to explain the logic of the IIT decisions. IIT leaders made choices based on their assessment of the Institute’s strengths and weaknesses and their appreciation of emerging opportunities and threats. The case presents only one example of an institution responding to the changing landscape of education in which it is operating. IIT is unique, in the way that every institution, each with its own individual history, character and problems, would be unique.